Using The Infant/Toddler Environment Rating Scale to Improve Practice
This video is intended to introduce infant and toddler teachers and program administrators in center based settings to the ITERS instrument and to begin a dialogue on how the tool can be a great guide to support best practices. The Environment Rating Scales (ERS) are used to assess process quality in early childhood care and education programs. In this introduction video we talk to experts about the ITERS instrument and how infant and toddler teachers can utilize this tool to improve classroom practices. Learn more by watching now.
Improving Breastfeeding Support in Early Care & Education Programs
This video is intended to help infant and toddler teachers and program administrators in both center based and family child care settings support moms who have chosen to breast feed. Breastfeeding provides a unique emotional experience for mother and the baby. It can create a powerful physical and emotional connection between humans that supports the foundation of trust and love. There are so many reasons why breast feeding is important: it provides health benefits for mothers in helping them recover from childbirth more quickly and easily. Learn more now by watching.
Continuity of Care – Reflections from the Field
Continuity of care is the third key to providing the deep connections that infants and toddlers need for quality child care. Programs that incorporate the concept of continuity of care keep primary infant/toddler care teachers and children together throughout the three years of infancy period., or for the time during that period of the child’s enrollment in care. Learn more now. Special thanks to J. Ronald Lally, Ed.D. and Peter L. Mangione, Ph.D. for their valuable insight and contributions.
Too Small to Fail
On June 14th, Hillary Clinton announced a new partnership with Too Small to Fail and asks Americans to join the movement -- for the future of our kids, and our country. www.toosmall.org
Empowering Children’s Voices
This video was created by the Georgia Department of Early Care and Learning as part of their Infant Toddler Conference on Language and Literacy.
Change the First Five Years and You Change Everything
Early education programs do not supplant parents, but support them as their childs first and most important teacher. The sad reality is that many low-income parents grew up in poverty and may not have the tools to support their childs education. Evidence-based programs coach low-income parents on how to best support their childs education at school and at home starting before the child is born. Only by supporting the family can we narrow the achievement gap and break the cycle of poverty. http://www.ounceofprevention.org
New Video Teaches Parents How to Build a Foundation for Reading Success With Their Children
The message has been clear from countless sources: parents need to read to their children. But what parents really need to know is how they read makes all the difference in the development of their children’s vocabulary, comprehension and critical thinking skills. Research has shown that by reading with their children – not to them – parents greatly increase children’s language and literacy, developing the foundation they need to enter kindergarten as strong, confident learners on a path to grade level reading and so much more - for a lifetime. To help parents learn key things to do at story time, the Rollins Center for Language & Learning at the Atlanta Speech School has partnered with the Junior League of Atlanta to produce the complimentary video READ. In just five minutes, parents learn what they can do to make books come alive for their children and increase their learning: Repeat Books, Engage and Enjoy, Ask Questions, and Do More. A two-page coaching sheet recaps the four steps, and provides more information on the research that is the basis for the READ strategy. This video is narrated by Justin Cook, a 2010 graduate of the Atlanta Speech School’s Wardlaw School, and is posted on the school’s website, atlantaspeechschool.org.
Toxic Stress Derails Healthy Development
Learning how to cope with adversity is an important part of healthy development. While moderate, short-lived stress responses in the body can promote growth, toxic stress is the strong, unrelieved activation of the body's stress management system in the absence of protective adult support. Without caring adults to buffer children, the unrelenting stress caused by extreme poverty, neglect, abuse, or severe maternal depression can weaken the architecture of the developing brain, with long-term consequences for learning, behavior, and both physical and mental health. This video is part three of a three-part series titled "Three Core Concepts in Early Development" from the Center and the National Scientific Council on the Developing Child. The series depicts how advances in neuroscience, molecular biology, and genomics now give us a much better understanding of how early experiences are built into our bodies and brains, for better or for worse. Healthy development in the early years provides the building blocks for educational achievement, economic productivity, responsible citizenship, lifelong health, strong communities, and successful parenting of the next generation. For more information, please visit: http://developingchild.harvard.edu
Serve & Return Interaction Shapes Brain Circuitry
One of the most essential experiences in shaping the architecture of the developing brain is "serve and return" interaction between children and significant adults in their lives. Young children naturally reach out for interaction through babbling, facial expressions, and gestures, and adults respond with the same kind of vocalizing and gesturing back at them. This back-and-forth process is fundamental to the wiring of the brain, especially in the earliest years. This video is part two of a three-part series titled "Three Core Concepts in Early Development" from the Center and the National Scientific Council on the Developing Child. The series depicts how advances in neuroscience, molecular biology, and genomics now give us a much better understanding of how early experiences are built into our bodies and brains, for better or for worse. Healthy development in the early years provides the building blocks for educational achievement, economic productivity, responsible citizenship, lifelong health, strong communities, and successful parenting of the next generation. For more information, please visit: http://developingchild.harvard.edu
Experiences Build Brain Architecture
The basic architecture of the brain is constructed through a process that begins early in life and continues into adulthood. Simpler circuits come first and more complex brain circuits build on them later. Genes provide the basic blueprint, but experiences influence how or whether genes are expressed. Together, they shape the quality of brain architecture and establish either a sturdy or a fragile foundation for all of the learning, health, and behavior that follow. Plasticity, or the ability for the brain to reorganize and adapt, is greatest in the first years of life and decreases with age. This video is part one of a three-part series titled "Three Core Concepts in Early Development" from the Center and the National Scientific Council on the Developing Child. The series depicts how advances in neuroscience, molecular biology, and genomics now give us a much better understanding of how early experiences are built into our bodies and brains, for better or for worse. Healthy development in the early years provides the building blocks for educational achievement, economic productivity, responsible citizenship, lifelong health, strong communities, and successful parenting of the next generation. For more information, please visit: http://developingchild.harvard.edu